Mattabassett sewage plant to see massive upgrades

Published 12:00 am, Monday, June 13, 2011

CROMWELL -- The Mattabassett District is about to embark on a three-year, $100 million upgrade of its facility in order to meet new state requirements for nitrogen removal.

District officials outlined details of the project to a small group of residents and town officials who met in a darkened, powerless Town Hall Thursday evening. There was no power as a result of the intense storm that lashed the region late in the afternoon.

Construction is expected to start late this year and continue for three years, according to Brian W. Armet, the district's executive director.

The project is being funded in part through $22.9 million grant from the Department of Environmental Protection's Clean Water fund. In addition, the district will also use a 20-year loan from the Clean Water Fund to fund the remaining $77.1 million that will make up the total project cost.

The interest on the loan is 2 percent per year, or $4.715 million, Armet said. That cost will be shared by the five entities that make up the district. That includes four communities: Berlin, Cromwell, Middletown and New Britain, and the Metropolitan District Commission.

Middletown has not officially joined the district, however. It must be voted in by the other member communities.

With Middletown in the mix, the annual cost for Cromwell per year will be $395,604; without Middletown, the cost would rise to $428,000 per year, according to figures presented at the hearing Thursday.

In addition to the state funding, Armet said the district "is also chasing some Federal funding as well." However, "Those dollars aren't going to materialize," Armet said.

Some of the equipment at the plant, which sits just off the southbound lanes of Route 9 south of South Street, dates from the late 1960s, Armet said.

The staff has worked extremely hard to keep that equipment in tip-top shape, he said. But, "it's become harder and harder to get original equipment' to make repairs, he said, and so the time has come to replace that 1968 equipment.

The existing incinerator which is used to burn sludge is being replaced. A new garage will be built and will utilize solar panels to help power the building, Armet said.

The scope of the project is so large that the District bought the 1.5-acre Suzio Concrete Batch plant site to the south of the district's property. Armet said a portion of the space will be used for one of the District's new final settling tanks.

To those who might say wait and hold off on the expansion and renovation project, Armet said, "If we don't go ahead with this project at this time, we will miss out on the DEP grants and we will not be able to take part in the nitrogen credits program."

In conjunction with New York State, the DEP is working to reduce nitrogen that is being discharged into Long Island Sound. The nitrogen is blamed for increasing the growth of algae which is suffocating much of the western portion of the sound.

While some of the plant's equipment needs to be replaced, the main force driving the project is the state's nitrogen reduction program, Armet said. He described that as "the primary reason we are doing this," and said, "Whether or not Middletown joins the district, we still have to do this."

There was no opposition to the project from the dozen people at the hearing. Among the attendees were three Cromwell selectmen, Ann M. Halibozek, Richard R. Newton, and Anthony Varricchio.

Asked by Armet to comment on the project, Varricchio said, "I think it's a necessary thing that we have to get done."